There was some talk of these at the last bay area meet. This is only $10 more than woot's price a few weeks ago.

From ben's bargains:
Amazon.com has the refurbished iRobot Roomba 4210 Discovery Floorvac Robotic Vacuum, White for $160 - $25 off $125 code JANCLEAR [Exp 1/31] = $135 with free shipping.

Matthew

Was Woot's price for a Discovery?
I thought the Discovery came with a home-station and two IR wall units. Mine did, at least.
Or maybe I'm thinking of Discovery SE? It's been a while since I've read about the packages and deals.
Mine was about $270 when they were introduced (over a year ago).
That looks like a good price!

Yup, virtual walls and all. Woot's was refurbished also, if that bothers you.

Matthew

I'd always wanted a Roomba, but couldn't justify QUITE that much money. The refurb thing plus the JANCLEAR code brought it down under my threshold. Thanks for the post. Ordered.

If I set loose a Roomba in my house, it would choak and die in 13 seconds or 4 feet, whichever came first. My 1970's Electrolux canister vac can barely contain the all the filth (from my two large dogs).

Nice picture I can't imagine the roomba having too much suction the guts of it look about like a dustbuster.

Apart from not being much of a "vacuum," they fixed what was otherwise problem number one: Auto recharging. But now the biggest problem is auto-unloading of the crap it picks up. Since the Roomba is pretty much a brusher I've read nothing but complaints about dumping and cleaning it.

I'd love a Dyson central vacuum (they don't make them) with a Roomba-type bot that self-charges and unloads its waste at a dock/inlet for the central system. Now THAT would be maintenance upkeep. 3 times per week with the current Rooomba means you're picking it up and emptying it out 3 times per week. I can't imagine that's a pleasant thing to do. Emptying out a dust-buster usually gets me considering chucking the whole thing any time I do it.

Of course I'd also have to keep the place a lot neater for something like the Roomba to navigate properly. As well as having at least 2 of them if I didn't want to keep moving a single one up and down the stairs on different days.

So for now it's just a Dyson DC11 for the most part. I've also got an unbearably big shop vac and that annoying dustbuster.

Bruno

Hm. I want to order one, but I don't need the virtual walls. Does the red version do the self docking trick or should I just buy the Discovery and try to sell the virtual walls?

- Jon

Yaye! I also have been corting a roomba for quite a while now. With the $25 discount, it puts it squarely in my "BUY NOW" mindset! Too bad you didn't include link that would earn you some payola... I just bought one now - thanks!!!!

-Sigh-
How could I pass this up? But wait! The January deadline is passed!
Oh, well...

But wait (again)!
There's another $25 offer for February!
Link to refurbished Roomba at Amazon

Quote:
Save $25.00 when you spend $125.00 or more on Kitchen & Housewares and Bed & Bath products offered by Amazon.com. Enter code VALENTIN at checkout.

...and with free shipping it's still $135! So, yah, couldn't pass it up.

/amassing my own vacuum army.
//current Roomba is sick- '8 beeps', gotta sort that out somehow.
///thanks, Matthew!

Can... no... longer... resist...

Ordering now.

heh, same here. Read some reviews, and apparently this version does do decently on cleaning up pet hair. Should help in my house, since my two long hair cats that like to play rough and the fur flies at times.

Just hope that it's not pieces of Roomba flying when the cats band together to play rough with that magic noisy UVO (Unidentified Vacuuming Object).

Since there are so many people jumping on this is it safe to assume we can see a few more reviews soon?

Bruno

I wanna see videos of the cats attacking the roomba

I'm told that the Roomba's best usage is as a cat terrorizer. I remember reading someone's Livejournal post about it, a couple years ago...

They need to add a randomly jumping around laser pointer then the cats would be conflicted.

They need to add a randomly jumping around laser pointer then the cats would be conflicted.


Does anyone know why cats (and dogs, too) go nuts over laser pointers, but completely ignore a narrow-beam flashlight?

tanstaafl.

During my 2 hour vaccuming of nearly my entire house, I thought of this thread and wondered:

How might three or four Roomba's play well together?

I'm not in a big house at all, but a dusty/hairy/dirty one. Maybe each Roomba could have its own "turf", likely dictated by the location of its charger (far from the others). But if they saw each other, they'd have to learn it's not a wall they are seeing, but one of their own.

Um, on second thought, that would tripple or quadruple their (1) human hunting (2) rampage of death.

Roombas dressed up as Farscape DRD's. Just a thought.

Gah. Just got mine, and it is acting as though one of its wheels is bad in one direction.

It worked for the first five minutes. I was having a ball watching it zip around. Then it started making continuous circles in one spot. Over and over again. I canceled its cleaning cycle and tried to control it directly with the remote. It now won't drive straight, nor will it rotate left correctly. It will only rotate right correctly.

I called their 800 number and spoke to someone in Ebonics, who when I said my name was "Tony" asked me if it was spelled T-O-N-E-Y. She took a message and promised that they'd get back to me in ... ... 72 hours? Gah.

Google for "Roomba circle dance".

Hm. Those indicate a problem with dirty optical sensors on the wheels.

I peeked at mine (it's possible to unscrew and pry up the wheel covers just enough to see, without fully disassembling the robot), and they are clean.

Somewhere I recently (could've been at the RoombaReview BBS) saw a repair procedure for a broken belt in one of the wheel enclosures. The belt failure caused such a 'circle' problem as well.
Also over there (again, somewhere) is a full diagnostic procedure. I haven't tried it yet.
Amazon has shipped mine, so I'll probably see it next weekend.

Edit:
good list of procedures

Hmm-
Regarding my current 8-beep problem, it seems to be a warning that concerns the vacuum motor. Some lists of 'beep translations' are incomplete and leave out the 7 and 8 beep error causes- mainly because these were disabled in versions later than mine, apparently.
The troubleshooting pages at iRobot has this to say about it:

Quote:
What do I do if my Roomba stops, says 'uh-oh', and beeps 8 times?

Make sure the Dust Bin is properly seated in the Roomba. You may want to try wiping off the metal contacts on the bin with a clean, dry cloth. You also should try popping the grate off the back of your Roomba and ensuring the vacuum is spinning freely. If this does not resolve the problem, please call Customer Support at 877-855-8593.

I haven't found any joy with those tips.
I've found that the problem is most prevalent when the battery is less than fully charged and the filter has seen some hours of use.
*sigh* I guess I'll be calling CS.

Well no videos of the cats attacking it yet, though they don't like it too much. I let it roam around a bit when I first got it till the battery died, and the cats were on edge a bit. I think they disliked my RoboRaptor more though, since it reacted to them trying to approach and smell it.

I'll have some fun with the cats later once the charger powers it back up again. And also once I get batteries for the virtual walls, as the roomba dove off my stairs when it when at them straight on. Seems the sensor caught the cliff slightly too late, as by the time it tried to stop, enough of it was off the stairs to cause it to slip. No major damage though (beyond a minor dent in the paint on the wall), just had to reassemble the brushes and filter.

Got mine a couple of days ago. So far it has worked flawlessly. Found the dock each time it need to charge. It seems to be doing a pretty good job. After the first use it was completely full of carpet fiber. After the second time it had much less. So far so good.

So how are your Roombas working? About the only downside I see is that it seems to spend a LOT of time under the couches. They must be REALLY clean under there.

Yeah. It seems to be easy for them to get under there and much harder for them to get out. Then again, maybe they're doing their "dirt detection" thing. I know the carpet under my couch hasn't been vacuumed in ages.

My only problem is that it has trouble getting on top of some of my rugs. In one case, the short edges of the rug curl up a little. I can probably figure out how to tack them down. In the other case, it's an oriental rug whose pile is a little too thick for it and it always bounces off. I really need to figure out a solution for that.

Ours at one point got trapped in a maze of two dining room chairs placed next to each other. After about five minutes of watching it bounce around the same five square feet we took pitty on it and moved the chairs. I'm sure it would have found an exit trajectory eventually, but I'm not sure when.

Our floors are certainly a lot more clean with the roomba. It's a horrible vacuum, but it's so much better than having to vacuum yourself.

Matthew

I took both of my roombas to work and let them run around in the evenings for entertainment (yah, I know, I'm easily amused).
The old one still has the annoying '8-beeps' problem.
I'm going to try swapping in the new battery and see if that changes anything. Hmm, I could also swap out the new bin, as it contains the vacuum motor that is the origin of the alert message. Nice to have some experiments on the agenda, but not nice to not have much time to try things (work is crazy right now).
Otherwise, my new Discovery is working great and it's fun to see some of the differences in path strategy. Docking is greatly enhanced, that's for sure.
Had both of them running around my office once- they'd bump each other and try to do a 'roll-out' maneuver around each other.

Holy cat hair, Batman! We've only got one cat, but just running the Roomba in the kitchen was enough to pick up more cat hair than I thought was possible to have in a kitchen (without huge visible clump, of course).

I do have a problem in one room that has pretty deep pile carpeting. The Roomba does fine on that, but once it hits the rug that's on top of that, it just kind of sits there spinning its wheels.

I had another problem when my son dumped a half a box of Lucky Charms on the kitchen floor. Rather than pick it up, I just put the Roomba on it. When i came back a few minutes later, Roomba was making a horrible sound and smelling bad. I picked it up and saw that there were a couple of pieces of cereal that were large enough to get lodged above the beater bar without making it all the way in to the bin. The repeated spinning of the beater bar had actually worn/burned the rubber on the beater bar. I thought it was weird that the Roomba started to disintegrate before the cereal, but that's due to the magical deliciousness, I guess.

Other than that, the problems I have aren't Roomba's but mine, such as having a nasty habit of leaving way too much crap on the floor instead of putting it away.

Does anyone have a new code? The "VALENTIN" code has expired as well.

Do they just keep changing the promo code to their own sale every month? That's dumb.

Anyway, thanks, I might pick one up!

Back from my trip and I want to order one now. Anyone know where I can get it at 135 or so still?

Amazon has the refurbished one listed for a lot more now...

- Thanx
- Jon

Update on my Roomba:

2006-Jan-30: Ordered.

2006-Feb-06: Arrived. Unpacked. First cleaning cycle begins.
2006-Feb-06 + 00:05:00: Drive failure on one wheel.
2006-Feb-06 + 00:10:00: Called and left message with support.

2006-Feb-07: Support gets back to me, has me send in:
- Roomba
- charger
- dock
despite the problem clearly not being dock or charger related. I spend about 15.00 for shipping.

2006-Feb-24: Arrived:
- Roomba
- no charger
- no dock
2006-Feb-24 + 00:00:00.0000001: Called support. Charger and dock are backordered from supplier. Expect next week.

2006-Feb-24 + 1 week: Arrived:
- Nothing.

2006-Mar-07: Called support (now on speed dial). Left message.

2006-Mar-14: Arrived:
- Charger
- No dock.

2006-Mar-15: Support finally calls back.
"Our records show you received your charger yesterday."
"Nice of you to call back, EIGHT DAYS LATER thank you very much. Yes, I got the charger but not the dock."
"Oh, that's back ordered."
"For the umpteenth time, why did they even have me send the charger and the dock in the first place? Can't you just send back the perfectly good ones I sent you?"
"No, I'm sorry, returns go to a completely different building, in a completely different city, in a completely different state, and it's out of our control."
"Gah. When will I be able to actually use this product I bought?"
"You can use it now, the charger plugs directly in."
"Part of the reason I wanted this thing was that it would auto-dock and self-charge when it was done cleaning. Having to pick up a robot and plug it in the charger sort of defeats the purpose of it being a robot in the first place."
"Well, there's nothing we can do."
"Sigh. Okay, when will the DOCKS be available for shipment?"
"We don't know."
"CLICK. GAAAAAAAAAH."

2006-Mar-16: Roomba is fun, works as advertised, but I still have to plug it in by hand. Still awaiting dock.

Note time between purchase and actual use of product: 1.5 months, and product is still missing a major critical part.

I say the heck with it and go play some roomba frogger

Yeah, saw that a couple of days ago. Hilarious.

I ordered my own Roomba last week. I just got it off ebay since Amazon now only has it for $199 before rebate. I paid a bit less.

The main reason I got it was to clean my office. I keep a lot of computer equipment in here, so it has to be locked when I'm not around, which means that the cleaning crew doesn't get a chance to get at it. As a result my office hasn't been vacuumed in over a year, which is pretty nasty. There's so much dust in here that it gets kicked up and I can feel it on my fingers, and I must look like I have OCD because I wash my hands nearly 15 times a day.

Well, after one run by the Roomba, I'm not getting that feeling anymore. It's funny, I didn't think the little guy was doing much, because a lot of little bits weren't getting picked up. I saw it go over one of those little pieces you get from a hole puncher, and two feet later it dropped it on the ground. Well, after the Roomba was done I emptied everything, and the filter was completely clogged. It was just caked with dust and other crap, so I'm sure it was just having a hard time sucking enough to air to get bigger stuff.

I'm going to run it again in a few minutes. I love this thing! Now I want a Scooba!

Thanks for the "office" post... I've followed the Roomba casually sicne it was first announced and played briefly with them at CES last year. I have more than a strong feeling that I wouldn't be happy with the Roomba on my main floors, due to space and furniture constraints. But I'm just renovating my basement and turning it into an office. All smooth Maple laminate floors and since it's a work in progress I can plan for a Roomba... I'll make sure not to put in anything that will trap/wedge the Roomba under it for instance.

Now if only they were working on a flying model that did the dusting...

Bruno

Maybe you want a Scooba? I dunno, will you want to mop the laminate?

The Scooba looks like it requires a lot more human intervention (no self-charging base) plus it uses proprietary consumables. I think the Scheduler would likely be the right choice for me. I'd set it up to do its thing every day in the wee hours of the morning. I think the hardest part of this whole process is going to be laying out the office to make the Roomba as effective as possible. Of course the number one priority is a layout that will make the people working in it their most effective.

Bruno

Update on my Roomba.

Just got the home charger base in the mail, 2006-04-13

Based on my previously posted timeline, it has been nearly 3.5 months between product purchase, and fully functioning product with all the parts.

Jeez, Tony- could you have just bought another one and sent the first one back?
Hope you can enjoy it- even after such a headache.

Hi Tim,

The Scooba sounds good in what it does, but it also sounds very unfriendly to use... or maybe I'm just spoiled since the normal Roomba is so easy to use.

I love coming home after having pushed the "clean" button and finding my Roomba docked and charging. It was busy cleaning my place while I was out doing something else. It warms my heart... :-)

Maybe Scooba v2 will be self docking and easy to clean... (note that I'm guessing there will be a Scooba v2). Oh hey, btw - I have a funny iRobot story for you. My lil sis, who lives in MA, told me that she actually dated the guy that started iRobot. She says that he was absolutely obsessed with the technology, as you'd expect he'd be. He was working on the Scooba when she dated him... That's the story - not too exciting, but somewhat iRobot related...

- Jon

The Scooba did seem like a little more work, but then again it's a lot less of a mess than a mop and bucket.

I think the appeal of the Scooba is that when compared to what it's replacing (a person mopping), I think it would do a superior job. That's compared to the general idea of a Roomba, which technically does an inferior job at what it does compared to what it's replacing (a standard vacuum).

Anyway, I may also wait until their next version of the product, but having seen what you have to do to run one, I think I'd prefer it to the alternative

*edit*
I have to add, the Roomba is a fiancee-approved gadget. I get the nifty gadget that lets me do less house work, and she gets the knowledge that it will be in our shared home some day, cleaning our floors instead of one of us doing it

Haha - yeah, true.

- Jon

The Scooba is a lot easier than sweeping then mopping the old fashioned way. It really doesn't take all that much effort to get it up and going. You pop open the tank, fill it with water, put some soap in the reservoir, put the tank into the Scooba and hit the clean button.

After it is done, you remove the tank and empty it, pop out the battery to recharge it, and put the Scooba away. I also just do a cursory check on the filters to see if they are in need of being replaced (haven't replaced any yet). It really is a lot easier than manual mopping

-- Tim

If you have to write instructions like that (some would call them excuses ) then it doesn't sound much like a robot. It's no more a robot than a toy car that randomly bounced from wall to wall in 1978. It's an electric self-guided mop.

It definitely needs automated, self-seeking charging that works 100% of the time, automated dumping and filling station (where it would take in water and cleaning solution). It should also have an inspection mode where it goes around quickly (when no one's around) to just check the floors to see if they need to be cleaned - but don't actually dispense any solutions or do any cleaning until it's done the scan. And it needs to talk to other appliances on a network, including other Scooba and Roomba units.

The Roomba should be updated with much of the same abilities. When locating it's charging dock, it should not have to search. It should know exactly where it is. Either through tracking its movement, or better yet, through a homing beacon/signal. Automatic unloading of the garbage it picks up is a MUST. Hopefully into a central vacuum slot/inlet.

And when it senses that someone has stolen the pans to the DeathStar, it should offer to make a holographic recording for them.

Bruno

A buddy sent this slickdeals link along-
http://slickdeals.net/#p7941
Amazon has refurbished
Schedulers $185
Discoveries $145
Reds $75
with an extra $25 off "FALLSAVE" coupon code (only for purchases over $125).
Hmm- I see it says "OCTSAVER" at Amazon.

I feel like such a shill. I think I've pounded this into the dirt now.

Thanks. Your link helped me find the XBox Vision Camera for about $30 delivered...

- Jon